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(RNS) An 84-year-old nun was sentenced to nearly three years in prison on Tuesday (Feb. 18) for breaking into a Tennessee nuclear facility in July 2012.
Sister Megan Rice and two other anti-nuclear activists were convicted last May of breaking into a federal comp...
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Eds: A version of this story originally appeared in USA Today. It is available for use by RNS subscribers. Please use the USA Today byline.
(RNS) The family of a little girl in western Virginia has removed her from her school after administrators said she did not ap...
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PHILADELPHIA (RNS) Advance preparations for the wildly popular Pope Francis, due in Philadelphia five months from now, might rival the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
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WASHINGTON (RNS) Most Americans who file income tax returns won't be affected by proposed changes in how charitable contributions are deducted, but that hasn't stopped charitable groups from lobbying Congress to fight any change in deductions as part of the "fiscal cl...
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Adelle Banks, Religion News Service's production editor and national reporter, visited the Rejoice School of Ballet, a faith-based nonprofit in Nashville, Tenn., during a November multimedia boot camp with the Freedom Forum's Diversity Institute. Video by Adelle Bank...
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The response of many Muslims has been: why not? What does it take to qualify something as terrorism? The words that many are using is maddening, insane, senseless, etc. But not terrorism. Many Muslims want to know why the word terrorism is off the table, and whether that means that terrorism is only something that is considered when Muslims commit the atrocity.

I can understand that sentiment, but suggest that we should postpone those questions for the time being.
This is a time to pray, to mourn, to grieve, to hug one another, and to bury our dead.

The time for difficult conversations will come. There will come another time to ask why we as a nation have such a fascination with violence, why the NRA continues to go “going all in” (to use their motto) when so clearly we need some restraint and supervision, and why the coverage of these events relegate mass violence performed by non-Muslims not as terrorism but as senseless violence, reinforcing the association between Islam and violence.

But now is not the time to ask those questions. Now is the time to mourn.
Unmounred grief will resurface as something quite vengeful and angry, and we as a nation cannot afford anymore unhealthy processing of grief.
Let us mourn, let us pray, let our hearts be shattered for now.

Comments

Ron S
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Jul 24, 2012
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1:14pm

I’m more concerned about Christian terrorists in the United Sates than Muslim terrorism of which there has been virtually none since 9/11. The only potential Muslim threats since 9/11 have been stings orchestrated by the FBI. It’s the Christian nut- jobs that bother me.

Omid Safi is a Professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in contemporary Islamic thought and classical Islam. An award-winning teacher and speaker, his most recent book, "Memories of Muhammad," looks at the biography and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad.
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